This year’s Computex Taipei would be the biggest since the outbreak of COVID-19, featuring around 1,500 exhibitors and attended by several luminaries of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, including Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), Advanced Micro Devices Inc CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) and Intel Corp CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Others scheduled to appear and give keynote speeches at the annual show, which opens on June 4, are Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon and Super Micro Computer Inc CEO Charles Liang (梁見後).
There are many reasons for the show’s popularity, including its compelling theme — “Connecting AI” — and the rise of AI products, said Paul Peng (彭?浪), chairman of the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北電腦公會), co-organizer of Computex.
Photo: CNA
New opportunities related to the emergence of AI PCs ensure that CEOs are showing up, “especially with the growth of the IT industry in the first half of 2024 [being] a bit lackluster,” said Peng, who is also the chairman of leading display panel manufacturer AUO Corp (友達).
Geopolitics might also be playing a role.
“Since the onset of the pandemic and the US-China trade war, fewer people from the West have entered China,” Peng said in an interview.
However, because executives still want to know more about the region, “Taiwan has become the optimal place for them to obtain the information,” he said.
Peng added that there could also be a “competition” among them, with some fearing that if other “heavyweights” are attending, “then I have to go, too, to show my weight.”
The significance of this year’s Computex goes well beyond its scale and glitz, he said.
Its theme, “Connecting AI,” shows how far Taiwan’s computer industry has come, as AI computing, advanced connectivity and immersive reality, to name a few, are to be featured at this year’s expo.
“Taiwan’s ICT supply chain [for AI development] is highly comprehensive, and AI applications are now emphasized with promoted field trials,” Peng said when asked how AI would further benefit Taiwan’s tech industry.
One AI application is the smart city, he said, adding that more than 100 city heads or representatives attended the Smart City Summit and Expo held in Taipei last month.
The event was also organized by the TCA and had record attendance.
“They came in anticipation of cooperating with Taiwanese companies to have those companies’ applications and solutions exported to their cities, so I believe Taiwan has a good chance to make inroads into the AI sector,” Peng said.
The trade show also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the TCA.
Peng said that becoming the chairman of the computer association as a panel maker in 2019 was another indicator of the evolution of Taiwan’s tech sector.
In the past, “most TCA chairpersons were from system integration companies, such as early computer manufacturers MiTAC Holdings Corp (神達) and Acer Inc (宏碁), but AUO is a computer parts manufacturer,” he said.
That shows how Taiwan’s computer industry has transformed into an all-encompassing information and communications technology industry, “from software to hardware, from computer parts to total solutions and even cybersecurity,” all of which would be on display at Computex, he said.
AUO itself has moved in that direction, branching out from display panel making to providing total solutions for meeting space management for enterprises and educational interactive classroom solutions, Peng said.
With the TCA expanding into new fields, in part because the COVID-19 pandemic rendered offline exhibitions impossible, many alliances have since 2020 been set up to keep up with technological development and keep collaborations going, he added.
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